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this is mission control houston while

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the expedition 34 crew is busy inside

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the orbiting complex working on a

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variety of different experiments a major

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experiment is taking place outside the

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station the robotic refueling mission is

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underway out on the far right hand side

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of the station's truss structure again

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this is a big

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washing machine sized experiment that is

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using the station's robotic arm and also

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the dexter

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robot itself to prove that satellites in

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the future can be refueled in space

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we're pleased now to be joined by

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benjamin reed who is the deputy project

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manager of nasa's satellite servicing

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capabilities office up at the goddard

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space flight center he has been an

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integral part of this rrm experiment ben

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how are you doing

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i'm doing actually great

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really pumped about the success we had

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last night

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a little little sleepy eyed but but

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really excited that the first day of

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operations

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was so successful and looking eagerly

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forward to

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four more days

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so let's talk about why this is

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important there's

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literally hundreds and thousands of

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satellites up you know both

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you know a few hundred miles away from

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earth's orbit and also far out there in

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space by you know 22 000 miles or more

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why why is refueling these satellites

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important and why is it important to

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demonstrate this on the space station

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well i i think you uh you hit the nail

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on the head with your numbers

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there are

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as

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is available on the web

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something right around a thousand

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operational satellites in orbit right

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now in space a thousand and of those one

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000

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all but two

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are

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serviceable

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um so

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pardon me check that the reverse and uh

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only two of the 1000 are serviceable and

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that is the international space station

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and

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hubble space telescope the other 998

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are

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not designed for servicing

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it's like having

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an iphone a skilled technician can get

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into an iphone to replace a battery or

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crack screen if necessary but but not

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the general public not without

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specialized tools so these are the 998

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can be accessed we are demonstrating on

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space station

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that the tools the technologies and the

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techniques are available now for

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accessing um a

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satellite's refueling system to give it

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more more propellant but it's not easy

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it requires sophisticated tools it

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requires careful planning um but that's

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the sort of thing that that that we do

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uh for a living here at nasa

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you know let's talk about the history of

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this a little bit because we mentioned

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this yesterday that you know there's

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been a number of times that nasa and its

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partners have had to go up and service

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something that wasn't exactly designed

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uh to have that happen to it you

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mentioned hubble because there's been a

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lot of work that was done on hubble over

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the years that uh

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it wasn't you know in the in the

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planning stages they didn't envision

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having to do that but they created

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specific tools for it they practice it

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like you said um

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is any of that uh learning that we've

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had both on hubble and other satellites

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is that being applied to this in terms

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of how you go about sort of

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you know attacking something that wasn't

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really designed to do that absolutely

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absolutely we spent 20 years servicing

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hubble we the agency

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and throughout those five servicing

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missions spread out across 20 years

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we became comfortable with the paradigm

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that the hardware was in orbit we

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certainly knew a lot about it although

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never quite as much as you wish you knew

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when you were building the tools and the

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replacement hardware

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so the hardware is in orbit so we on the

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ground are charged with putting together

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a robust servicing mission and that

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involves

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the replacement hardware how is it going

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to be attached is it going to be

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attached with the same technique that

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the original hardware had on it

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the tools to do that work

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the procedures development what in the

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procedures

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are going to be the the special trips

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that would

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cause the

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the engineers on the ground to go into

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so all that that that planning the

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philosophy of how you build

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a robust servicing mission was exactly

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the

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what has positioned us for

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being able to do what we do now on the

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international space station with the

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robots with dexter that's up there and

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our sophisticated tools that we built

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for dexter to use to service a satellite

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so what you're looking on the screen

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right now is an animation of

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the stowing of a cap that was not

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designed to be removed by a robot when

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this cap was and when a cap like that

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was installed um

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and so

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it's just a quick little example if you

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don't mind of contingency procedures

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so we just last night uh cut a safety

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wire this is a very small wire um

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20 thousandths of an inch thick two of

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them twisted together

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you can see a fragment of one on the

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screen right now

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and when it was cut it popped itself

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into a position that wasn't optimal for

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a subsequent operation so immediately

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the team recognized this with the video

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that we got and they said okay well we

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know how to handle this situation we'll

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use the tool that's already in dexter's

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grip

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to

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move that wire out of the way so that

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the the following operation that would

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occur a couple hours later

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could be successful so that type of

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immediate recognition of the situation

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and executing pre-planned procedures

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worked perfectly last night and that's

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the sort of thing we did time and time

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again on hubble space telescope

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hal you know one of the main differences

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between hubble and this is that you had

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astronauts up there with their own eyes

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on it this is uh quite different because

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you guys are commanding it from the

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ground while the space station is up

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there orbiting so what are some of the

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challenges and you know does it make

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does it make you nervous to be uh to be

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doing something of this size um you know

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with something that you really can't

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send you've got cameras on it but you

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really can't see it up close and

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personal you're having to do this

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remotely it it's different and it's the

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same we still have humans and robots

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working together

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astronauts routinely would stand at the

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end of the shuttle rms the 39-foot arm

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and

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operations

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and now we simply have the humans on the

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ground controlling the arm from the

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ground so in that regard

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it is still humans and robots working

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together

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being able to do things that neither one

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can do by themselves as well or as

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quickly as efficiently

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but it is different you are absolutely

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right the the innate abilities that

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humans have the the the on the spot

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judgment um the ability to assess the

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situation to automatically adjust your

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hand your wrist if you're not um

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rotating the screw perfectly actual to

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to how it's screwed on for example those

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are things that robots can't do unless

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we tell them to do it

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so we are quite fortunate that space

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station has

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an excellent on-orbit dexterous robot

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dexter

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and so it was

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considerably easier for us to put

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together a suite of sophisticated

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robotic tools

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because dexter existed in orbit and

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dexter of course is brought to us by our

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international partners the canadian

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space agency

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so it is different because we get so

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used to

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knowing what humans can do and not even

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thinking about it so it requires us to

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to

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decompose the way humans normally

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perform tasks and to make sure that

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we've programmed the robot and the tools

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to uh

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to still be able to accomplish their

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their mission

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so

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it does require

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a different type of thinking but i'll

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tell you what we've got a great team

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here at goddard and at johnson and at

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csa so i'm incredibly proud of what

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they've put together

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so you talked about the wire sniff that

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took place yesterday you guys are going

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to get kicked off this afternoon with

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some more activities talk about what's

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ahead for today and the rest of the week

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sure

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dexter as i said has got two arms you

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can you might think of it as a

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gunslinger with a gun in each hand or or

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ambidextrous mechanic who's got a socket

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wrench on one side and a

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a drill or another tool in his other

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hand so right now

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we've got two tools out

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a wire cutter tool and the

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multi-function tool

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the wire cutter tool

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not surprisingly cuts wire and

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and that's what it's going to be doing

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later today and into the wee hours of

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tomorrow

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and in the other hand

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we

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dexter is holding the

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multifunction tool and in it is a

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tertiary cap

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and we need that was removed yesterday

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so it's about the size of pardon the

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analogy of a shot glass

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but this tertiary cap needs to be stowed

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safely

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to make sure that it doesn't come free

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at any time in the future so

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we will command

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the the stowage of that tertiary

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cap and then we will commence to cutting

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two more wires

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and we will see where they pop and we

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will react accordingly and that will

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close out day three's partly day two's

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activities

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all right well we will uh continue to

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watch this here on nasa tv of course

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we'll have live coverage uh throughout

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the week ben i want to thank you for

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your time we'll uh

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it's uh it's pretty cool to watch the

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stuff with these robots in space taking

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place outside the space station it's a

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it's a radically different type of

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experiment but it's one that's

287
00:10:23,269 --> 00:10:21,200
incredibly interesting to watch well

288
00:10:24,630 --> 00:10:23,279
thank you for the time to uh to let me

289
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explain what we're doing and i look